


Yes, Deer

by JiM



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-18
Updated: 2011-11-18
Packaged: 2017-10-26 06:04:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JiM/pseuds/JiM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve always insisted on driving and look where it got them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yes, Deer

“Danny?”

“Yes, Steven?”

“Are you alright?” Steve’s voice was a little hesitant and it was not a good sound for him.

“In what sense of the word?” Danny asked too calmly and Steve winced. Danny was slumped a little against the passenger window where he had been since Steve demanded and won the rental car keys at the airport.

“It’s just that you have a little…um,” Steve gestured toward his own nose and wiggled his finger a little in the air in front of his face.

Danny sniffed, a moist kind of noise that would have had any parent in the area reaching for a Kleenex automatically. He sighed and started squirming, trying to reach his back pocket.

“Here,” Steve had never been so grateful for the fact that his preferred leisure wear is cargo pants and the capacious thigh pockets. He pulled out a bandana and offered it to Danny.

“Camo? Really, Steven?” Danny grimaced but took the proffered item and dabbed gently at his nose. He sniffed again and asked, “Better?” before handing the bandana back.

Steve had to give marks for effort, but was not inclined to criticize at this juncture. Danny was still way too calm and Steve was reminded of the three seconds of silence between pulling the pin of a grenade and making sure it is far away from you. Besides, Steve figured he could do a better job once they got indoors. He drummed his fingers on the plastic console beside him, the sound surprisingly loud in the stillness on the side of the road.

“To answer your question, Steven, I am not all right. I think I sprained…”

“What?! Your wrist? Is your knee ok?”

“…my dignity,” Danny finished. “This is your fault, you know.”

“I know.”

“Because you are a control freak.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You always think you know best.”

“Uh huh,” Steve agreed, squirming a little against the seatbelt. It was too tight when he got into the driver’s seat and he regretted that he hadn’t taken the time to loosen it.

“We are less than three miles from the house I grew up in. I learned to drive on these roads, Steven. You did not. I know the conditions, especially at this time of year. Did I not tell you this?”

“You did,” Steve said and tried to get his left hand into the left cargo pocket. His thigh was jammed against the door, so it took a bit of wriggling, before his fingers closed on his Swiss Army knife.

“I believe we can both agree that my concerns were justified.”

“Yes, they were.”

Steve managed to pull the large knife blade out and slide it quietly into the white puffy object in front of him. The airbag deflated with a hiss. He gave a sigh of relief as he suddenly had more room to visually assess their position.

“Steven, hand me the knife,” Danny said in the same overly-calm tone he had been using.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Danny.”

“You,” Danny pointed a finger at him, “are not allowed to have any more ideas tonight. Give me the knife.”

Steve passed it over and watched as Danny stabbed the airbag in front of him with more force than was really necessary. The resulting puff of whitish dust as it deflated drifted to land on his face, accruing mostly in his eyebrows and in the thin trickle of blood from his nose. Danny’s eyes closed and he was obviously counting to ten before opening them again. Steve passed the bandana back without comment and accepted the knife in return as Danny wiped his face.

There were a few moments of silence as they both contemplated the view outside the windshield. It wasn’t much to talk about, really. Trees, some shrubs and a swath of wet leaves plowed up by the hood were all visible in the beam of the one working headlight.

“You want to get out of the car?” Steve asked quietly.

“What I want, Steven, is to have never gotten in this car in the first place. However, in the face of recent events, I would very much like to get out of the car. NOW,” Danny said.

“OK,” Steve said.

The next few minutes were filled with grunts, some metallic noises and a swear or two as they extricated themselves from the seatbelts and then clambered out the driver’s side window, which Steve had had to kick out. Danny, who had been on the downhill side of the wreck, had gotten squashed against the window as Steve tried to get enough room to put some force behind the kick. Still, Steve had to count it as a win when they were both standing beside the SUV and Danny was neither shouting nor poking Steve in the chest. All their joints worked, neither of them had gotten head trauma and, aside from Danny’s bloody nose, they didn’t even look that much worse for wear.

Danny’s cell phone still worked and his call to AAA was taken immediately. The operator made soothing noises and promised help within minutes. When he hung up, the two of them leaned against the side of the upside-down car in silence. There was a slight wind that stirred up the dead leaves on the side of the nearly empty road and Steve shivered a little in his thin Henley. Danny moved closer, as if offering to share warmth and Steve leaned into him a bit.

“Danny? I am sorry,” he offered after a minute or two.

“I know, babe,” Danny sighed, his eyes fixed on the corpse. “But you are gonna be the one to explain to Gracie that we just committed Bambicide.”

**Author's Note:**

> No animals were harmed in the writing of this fic.  
> The term "bambicide" as I have used it here, I first heard in John Sayles' movie, "The Return of the Secaucus 7".


End file.
